I’ve been playing harmonica since 1967, recording for myself and other artists since 1970, and helping other harmonica players make better music since 1980. In the last fifty-plus years I’ve made 3 major contributions to the art of the harmonica:

Singing “It Takes a Lot to Laugh”

1) I wrote Jazz Harp, a very influential book that helped a lot of harp players on their paths to careers in New York, Nashville, Los Angeles, London, and many other places.

2) I created a unique body of solo harmonica compositions and arrangements with my CDs The Act of Being Free in One Act and The Second Act of Free Being, which were the first commercial recordings I know of that were devoted entirely to solo harmonica. The Act of Being Free in One Act was cited as an influence by George Winston, another fine harmonica player, in his concert programs for years. Among other things, my work here and elsewhere helped to promote the use of alternate tunings for diatonic harmonica, which opened up new worlds of technical and emotional possibilities for players and composers. In 1999 only a few diatonic harmonica players used anything but standard Richter tuning; now just about every pro player is using simple Richter variations like the natural minor tuning, and some players have gone way beyond that.

2 Comments

Without alternate tunings I would have given up on harmonica. They allow me to play what I want to play. So I owe a big thank you to Richard Hunter, Lee Oskar, Charlie McCoy, Brendan Power, Rick Epping, Buddy Greene, Tony Eyers, and Joe Leone (and whoever else helped to invent or popularize my favorite tunings). And thank you to the manufacturers who build them. I like the new tunings. And I plan to try the new sounds coming from units like the Digitech RP.

I’m a musician from Brazil. I have to say that I simply loved to find your website! I really appreciated your album “The Act of Being Free in One Act”. It’s unique! Congratulations! Once time I wrote on a article when I was studying music here in Bahia, which I tried to say my feeling about music: “For ones that make the world a place less monotonous: Cheers!!”
I’d like to get your CD. It’s a littles difficult to me get it from Brazil. Anyway, I’ll keep trying and I’ll do it. Thank you